Ash-separator.



PATENTED SEPT. 6, 1904.

J. JACKSON.

ASH "SEPARATUR.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 11, 1901 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 N0 MODEL.

UNITED, STATES Patented. September 6, 1904.

"PATENT OFF-ICE.

JAMES JACKSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

ASH-SEPARATORQ SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 769,165, dated September 6, 1904. Application filed November 11, 1901. Serial No. 31,946. (No model.)

To all whont it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J AMES JAoKsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and'useful Improves ments in Ash-Separators, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to improvements in ash-separators comprising a closed vessel'internally provided with a single fixed screen, next above which, on a vertical rotatable shaft, are radial bars, scraping the ashes, cinders,

and small coal over the screen, and thereby effecting a separation of the ashes from the coal and cinders without any separation of the coal from the cinders.

The prime object of my invention is an ashseparator of a construction by which there is a continuous separation of the ashes from coal and cinders and finally a perfect separation of the coal from the cinders during the continuous operation of the separator and by which the ashes and cinders are discharged in a receptacle common to both and bodily removable from the separator device.

Another object is an ash-separator so constructed that the ashes and clinkers to be sifted and the coal to be separated are subjected to a thorough and continuous stirring before and during their passage through the first of a plurality of screens and that a separation of the larger pieces of coal from the ashes and clinkers is effected upon the first of said screens and that the ashes and clinkers, to gether with such coal as may reach the second screen, shall not only be stirred and agitated to such an extent as to sift the ashes through said second screen, but that during this operation there will be such a continuous crushing of the clinkers and a sifting thereof through the screen that finally the ashes and clinkers shall be discharged therethrough and entirely from the coal, thereby permitting the coal to be collected and discharged from the separator free of both ashes and cinders.

With these ends in view my invention contersunk screws 8.

. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the lower-screen portion on the line 2 2, Fig. 1; and Fig. 1 is an enlarged detail view of a vertical section of the cinder-crusher and lower screen.

5 indicates a barrel or vessel open at its lower end and adapted to set tightly down on Y a smooth floor or the ground, so as to prevent the escape of dust from beneath its bottom.- Secured to the inside of this vessel is a band 6,. supporting a plate 7, closely fitting the sides of the vessel, which plate is provided with a series of perforations throughout its surface and is preferably of metal, the band being secured to the plate by means of coun- Arranged above, but so as 'to be rotated in close proximity to the perforated plate 7, is a breaker or crusher bar 9, so named because its function is to crush or break cinders and other materials not coal, which crusher-bar is provided with a groove 35, in which is a strip of rubber 36, and may be of metal, if desired, the function of which is to sweep the plate 7 of whatever fine material might otherwise pass' under the breakerbar 9. The groove 35 may be made deeper than the strip of rubber or metal 36 to enable the latterto moveup and down over any irregularities which maybe present in the plate 7. When the rubber or metal strip 36 is loosely fitted in the groove 35, the strip will by gravity maintain its contact with the plate 7, notwithstanding any such inequalities in the plate. The bar 9 is held concentrically by means of a bolt 10, which passes through the plate 7 the crusher-bar 9, and cross-bar 12. To the cross-bar 12 is fastened several stirring-arms 13, which extend upwardlyv above the wires of a screen 1 1, nearly to the top of said screen. The arms 13 are threaded attheir lower ends and held to the cross-bar 12 by means of nuts 15. The cinder-crushing bar is provided with extension-rods 16,

secured in the arms 17 of the crushing-bar either by screws or by being cast therewith, and the cross-bar 12 is held by the head of the bolt 10.

A door 19, provided at one end with a hinge or hinges 20, is secured to the walls of the receptacle by a bolt or bolts 21, a boss or projection 22 on the door permitting it to assume a slightly-inclined position when full open. The door 19 covers an opening 23, the bottom of which is preferably on the same plane as the top of the crusher-bar 7, and on each side of the opening 23 are wings or guide-plates 24, preferably of sheet metal, which, together with the door when lowered to its open position, forms a chute for the removal of the coal retained on the perforated plate 7. Inside or next the upper edge of the receptacle 5 is fitted a ring 25, which is secured in place by bolts 26 and on which a cover 27 rests. This cover 27 is supplemented on its under side by a circular plate 28, fitting the ring 25 to hold the cover in place against lateral movement; but instead of the circular plate a downwardly-projecting flange maybe used to the same end.

Secured in the circular plate 28 or in the cover 27 are a number of depending fingers 18, which project downwardly to just above the surface of a screen 14 to which the ashes to be separated are first supplied, the fingers 18, in connection with the arms 13, hereinafter described, serving to keep the mass thoroughly stirred up to adegree facilitating the discharge of the cinders and ashes through the screen 14, which is coarse enough for this purpose and yet of a mesh preventing the discharge therethrough of the large pieces of coal in the ashes. The screen 14 comprises a wire-netting and a vertical surrounding flange, to which the wire fabric is secured, and is of a diameter sufficient to permit its convenient removal from the vessel 5, as hereinafter described.

The rods 16 16 pass upwardly through the screen 14 and project above the cover 27 through holes 30 in a bar 31, upon which are one or more handles 32, with the result that when the bar is given an oscillating or rotary movement the screen 14 and the crusher-bar 9 are simultaneously given a corresponding movement about the axis of the bolt 10, upon which the cross-bar 12 and the crusher-bar 9 are journaled.

Below the perforated plate 7 is a hopper 33, so arranged as to discharge the ashes and cinders passing through the perforated plate into a coal-scuttle or other suitable receptacle for conveying them away from the apparatus.

In operation the cover, with the depending fingers 18, are first removed and the ashes supplied to the screen structure 14 until it is substantially full, when the cover is replaced, whereupon the attendant takes hold of one or both of the handles and rotates the same until all of the cinders and ashes have passed through the screen 14, and thereupon the cover is again removed and also the screen, with the larger pieces of coal remaining therein, and which are thereby cleaned and saved. The cover is then replaced without replacing the screen, and the oscillation of the crusher-bar 9 is continued not only and until after all of the ashes have been discharged through the perforated plate 7 next below, but until the crusher-bar has by its friction and crushing contact with the cinders reduced the cinders to a fineness discharging them through the perforated plate, and when this is once accomplished the door 19 is then lowered and the small pieces of coal remaining on the screen 7 are discharged through the chute formed by the door and its wings 24 into a suitable receptacle or upon the ground, to be afterward taken up and consumed, and this discharge of the coal is facilitated by revolving or oscillating the crusherbar so as to move the smaller particles of coal to a point opposite and adjacent the dooropening. In this connection it is proper to observe that owing to the difference between the surface of cinders and coalthat is to say, the rough gritty surface of the cinders as compared with the smooth surface of the coalpresented to the crusher-bar the crusherbardoes noteifect thed isintegration of the coal, but pushes forward and across the perforations all pieces of coal except pieces fine enough to pass through the quite small perforations in the plate 7, while, on the other hand and at the same time, by the cooperation of the walls of these perforations and the crusherbar seize and crush between them the cinders into pieces sufficiently small for them to pass through the perforated plate 7, which passage is promoted by the scraping or dragging action of both the crusher-bar and the flexible scraper beneath but rearwardly of the operating, crushing, or grinding edges of the crusher-bar.

. The crushing action is due to the cinders being projected into the perforations of the plate as they are moved over the surface of this plate by the crusher-bar and with the result that they are crushed against the walls of these perforations by the pressure of the crusher-bar and not by any cutting action of this bar independently of these walls. Pieces of coal which are too large to pass through these perforations will, although projecting into the same, not be crushed,bec:u1sc of their smooth surface, and as a result they will be pushed along the surface of the plate from one perforation to another without disintegration, while in the meantime the cinders will be crushed, as before stated.

While my invention has been specifically described as applicable to ash-Sifters, and for which purposes it is especially intended, it is obvious that it might be used to good advantage for separating other materials, particularly when it is desirable to separate gritty and readily-crushetblesubstances from smooth substances.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is I 1. In a separator, an inclosing' vessel provided with a removable cover and a fixed perforated plate or screen below the same in combination with a rotatable movable crusherbar next above said plate, a rotatable screen between said crusher-bar and cover and means for simultaneously rotating said screen andbar, substantially as described.

2. In a separator, an inclosing vessel, a removable cover therefor, and a fixed perforated plate or screen below said cover, in combination with a rotatable crusher-bar next above said plate, and a rotatable removable screen between said crusher-bar and cover, substantially as described.

3. In a separator, an inclosing vessel, a removable cover therefor,and a perforated plate or screen below sald cover, 1n combmatlon with a rotatable crusher-bar next above said perforated plate, a rotatable screen between said crusher-bar and cover, a series of rotatable fingers or stirrers projecting above the latter screen, and a series of fingersfixed to the cover and projecting downwardly to near the upper surface of said screen, and means for rotating said cover and screens, substantially with the cover and projecting throughthe I cover, and having removably mounted thereon a handle-bar provided with handles whereby said crusher-bar, screen and depending fingers may be simultaneously rotated or oscillated, substantially as'descri'bed.

5. In a separator,'an inclosing vessel provided with a removable rotatable cover, a fixed perforated plate below said cover, and a rotatable crusher-bar next above said perforated plate, and means for simultaneously rotating saidcover and bar,in combination with a flexible scraper upon the under face of said crusher' bar, substantially as described.

JAMES JACKSON.

Witnesses:

S. R'YouNe, "G; PREssER; 

